Thursday, August 29, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Today I am sharing a card I made for my friend Ruth. She and her hubby are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary and she asked if I could make Joe a special card. She told me that this anniversary is the tin/aluminum anniversary, so I wanted to incorporate some metal elements.

Ruth loves to see how my cards are made, and I normally just share a picture of the card, with the exception of Wednesday when I take shots of my desk. So today, I am sharing a few pics of my process to make Joe his card.

I used Ranger's metal sheets to make the hearts. I love using these sheets as they look great but don't add bulk or weight to my cards. I used Tim Holtz Distress paint to paint the numbers 10 to turn them metallic.

I embossed the hearts and the metal sheet background paper using Tim Holtz embossing folders. I used Distress Ink in Black Soot to tone down some of the shine.

Here is the final card! I am very happy with the way it turned out, but more importantly, Ruth loved it!

I can't wait to hear if Joe likes it! Wishing them both a very Happy Anniversary and many more years of happiness!!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Wednesday is here again, so I am sharing what is on my work desk with you! A special thank you to Julia of Stamping-Ground for this desk hopping (snooping) fun! I look forward to this each week as I love to see what others are working on!

Today I was asked to make a last minute birthday card for a friend's granddaughter. She wanted it personalized with her name on it. I thought I would use one of my Prima Mixed Media Dolls for it as the girl is 9 years old. I love paper piecing their clothes! Reminds me of playing with paper dolls as a girl!

Finally, the finished card:

Thank you for stopping in today! I always enjoy your visits, and hope to visit with a lot of you today!

Enjoy the week ahead, and find time to enjoy something you love! I hope this week I am able to spend a lot more time creating as it has been so busy lately with summer fun!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! My two nieces celebrated their birthdays last week while on vacation. I cannot wait to celebrate with them soon, so I made a pair of cards for them!

My niece Amanda is 9 and is the ultimate girly-girl. I sorted through my stash and found this fun girl image by Stampavie/Suzi Blu that I thought would be perfect for her. Amanda has very long dark brown hair and loves to wear dresses, etc. I heat embossed the birthday greeting with white embossing powder both on the outside and inside of the card. I like the contrast against the kraft card. This is a very large card as this image is very large and wouldn't fit on my standard A2 Card. The flower was actually a very light pink one, but I added Distress Ink to the tips to mimic the patterned paper. When I was married my new cousin-in-law glued a bunch of fabric flowers to her gift, and me, being me, took them all off and saved them in a jar and love to use them on my cards and other crafts.

For Grace, who is 6, I decided to use the Tea Party set by My Favorite Things. The little girl reminds me of her. Both Grace and Amanda love to come and have tea parties at my house, and have them together at home all the time. This set is fun as I got to stamp a fun table setting and paper pieced the tablecloth. For both these cards I used Kelly Purkey Alphabet Stickers to note their ages. I received those stickers in my monthly card kit from Simon Says Stamp and thought it would be a good use for them. I am not one to use many stickers on my cards, but they are subtle enough for me!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! We have a weekend filled with concerts, barbecues and friends!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Today is Wednesday, so that means I am sharing what is on my work desk with you! Thank you to Julia for this fun desk hopping (snooping) fun! Last week you may recall I was sorting through my Tim Holtz stamps and supplies to prepare to make my August 2013 Tag. You will see I used a lot of distress products on this tag. Distress Stains, Distress Inks, and even my Distress Markers.

When I was looking at Tim's travel set and spotted the train, my mind went directly to Harry Potter! It reminded me of the Hogwarts Express. I am a big Harry Potter fan, so I decided to make a tag with that theme. Hedwig the owl is even represented in his cage. In the story, the train arrives/departs from a magical track #9 3/4. The large alpha stickers by Tim were fun to use to add that to the tag. The ribbon was stained in the colors of Gryffindor (one of the 4 houses of Hogwarts). The tag this month is the GIANT size #12.

Lots of inky fun, and now the clean-up begins! I hope to visit with as many of you as I can today. Thanks so much for visiting me (and my desk!) today! Until next week!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Today I am sharing a very special wedding card I made for one of my best friends. Lori is someone who I have known for many years, and we have been friends through so many of life's ups and downs. I am so happy that she found her soul mate in Robert and they are getting married this weekend in Utah. Lori lived in NYC with me for many years, and while I am a Met Fan, she is a diehard Yankee Fan. (I have tried for years to show her the "error" of his ways.) Her fiancé is a Boston Red Sox fan. I find this so funny, as those teams have one of the biggest rivalries in baseball. I decided to do a baseball themed card and incorporate their teams and colors in the card.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope the week has been treating you well! It is Wednesday, so I am sharing what is on my work desk! Thank you to Julia for all the desk hopping (and snooping) fun!

Today you will see that my desk is currently covered with supplies. I am planning my monthly Tim Holtz tag, and before I begin each month, I root through my Ranger and Tim supplies and try and formulate how to begin. This month he focused on masking, and used his travel stamps - which I happened to have!

My tag is still being kicked around in my head, but I have an idea that I hope to start working on tomorrow. Currently I am digging through my Tim Holtz tool box I put together to see what embellishments I will be adding, etc.

I will share the tag here as I always do when I am finished.

Looking forward to visiting with you today, and hope you have a great day! Until next time!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Hi, guys! My garden is really starting to yield a lot of herbs and veggies now. I cannot keep up with the tomatoes! This year the crop has been fabulous. I have been making a lot of tomato sauces and stewed veggies.

This weekend I decided to use a big batch of tomatoes and turn them into this:

Turkey Meatball Parmigiana

It was so delicious, and tasted even better since I slowed down and had dinner in my garden with my husband!

Do you have a veggie garden? If you don't, I highly recommend you try planting an herb garden or a pot of tomatoes next year. Start small, and I bet you will love having these yummy goodies at your fingertips.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Hi, guys! I know I have been missing for a few days, and am glad to have finally have a card to share with you today!

Remember on Wednesday when I mentioned I needed to make a birthday card for a 4 year old little girl? Well, I decided to use the adorable dog image by Inky Impressions! I was told the little one is very girlie, and loves the colors pink, blue and purple.

What do you think? She is very cute, right? It felt good to sit down and work on a card after a crazy, busy week of work, traffic problems and household chores. I hope to get in my stamp room a lot more this week. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Today is Wednesday, so I am sharing what is on my work desk with you. Thank you to Julia for this desk hopping fun!

Today my desk is full of stamps that I am looking through at the moment. I was asked by a co-worker friend to make a special birthday card for her daughter's 4th birthday. Part of my process is to just start digging through my stamps and lay them out in front of me. Most of the time that is a great starting point for me when I am thinking about creating a card.

I happen to have a lot of stamps that would be perfect for a little girl, from the Disney Princesses to other various girl images of every type. Still haven't decided what I will do yet, but I think I am leaning towards the adorable little girl dog with the cupcake.

Hope to visit with a lot of you today and see what you are up to this week!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! The weather is still warm, but not as brutal as it has been. It is a good thing as I was really starting to feel ill with the endless heat and no relief. Finally, this weekend my hubby and I were able to dine outside and relax. It has been way too hot for me to do that.

My tomatoes are starting to ripen, and I have had a couple of bowls full already picked and used.

I love to make fresh green beans and tomatoes, and boy were they delicious!

My hubby and I discovered a great inexpensive white wine that we loved. As a crafter and a lover of beautiful things, I can't help but keep these bottles. They will look great with flowers on my table! Isn't she pretty? The wine is great plain, but even better with a squeeze of lime! (I have NO affiliation with this company, but thought I would share it with you as I love a good priced and tasty wine!

Hope you are enjoying your summer, and if it isn't summer in your neck of the woods, I know it will be there sooner than you think!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Hi, guys (or should I say Bonjour?)! Today I am sharing a birthday card I made for my good friend, Monika. Monika is Chairwoman of our Jane Austen group and such a fabulous lady. The card I decided to make for her today is special in that I incorporated a windmill into the focal image, the reason being she collects those images, as her family name means "windmill" in Polish! I received The French Marketplace stamp set by Stampers Anonymous at my birthday barbecue a few weeks ago, and she was very excited when she noticed the Moulin Rouge image in the set. How perfect, and timely, for me to be able to use it for this card!

I decided to use my Distress Embossing Powder, and really like how it turned out I don't seem to use these powders that often, so I will have to remember to pull them out more! The background was done by masking the image and stamping the French script image repeatedly.

I don't often decorate the inside of my cards, but since Monika loves vintage images and distress, I decided to use the other images in the set, as well as the French "Happy Birthday" sentiment by Clearly Impressed.

Monika is truly a blessing in my life, and I am blessed to call her friend. I wish for each and every one of you a friend just like that in your life.